Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Flattery Works so Well (especially when it's friggin' awesome)!


David W. Barbee is a pretty cool cat!  Man!  We met when our respective books - "Carnageland" and "Naked Metamorphosis" - were released by Eraserhead Press.  I'd already read "Carnageland" at that point and dug it.  Plus Barbee was coming from Warner Robins, Georgia, not too far from where I went to college. 

Needless to say, Barbee is a wonderful guy.  He even survived the Georgian blizzard of '10.  And, I've been flattered that he's producing some very awesome art featuring some of the characters from "Naked Metamorphosis".  Ah.

Well, if you've read "Naked Metamorphosis" you know the deal: it imagines a classic piece of lit (in this case, "Hamlet") when it's twisted by other authors.  In my novella those other authors are Franz Kafka and William S. Burroughs.  Well, David Barbee just wanted in on that action.  So the continuation of both our stories describes what it would be like if Barbee got his hands on "Naked Metamorphosis" and his characters from "Carnageland" invaded.  Confused?  If you'd read the books you'd not be.  What?  You've not read them?  Well, then go get them.  No, now.  I'll wait.  Go ahead and put them in your amazon.com shopping cart.  Hurry.

http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Metamorphosis-Eric-Mays/dp/1933929901/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273665106&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Carnageland-David-W-Barbee/dp/1933929952/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273665130&sr=1-1

There, now you'll understand what's going on.

Well, I've been writing a very small and short chapbook featuring these characters as if they were in an NCAA-style bracket.  The first round is posted here on the blog.  The second is posted over at Barbee's blog: http://davidwbarbee.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/carnageland-vs-naked-metamorphosis-round-2/.  When you go to David's site, just ignore the creepy Jar Jar Binks-like thing giving you judgmental eyes.  He he he.

But he's drawing some pretty amazing art!  I love it.  I dig it.  I'm flattered by it.  And it's got me thinking about artists in general.  The term "starving artist" is a cliched and overused term, even if it's not too far from reality.  So, if you dig the art and you want to help real, true authors out, go and pick up a copy of our books at Amazon.  If you don't dig the art, just keep your opinion to yourself.  Let's keep the art alive!  Keep artists producing art!

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